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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival
material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are
physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available
through the World Wide Web. See the
section for more information.

Correspondence, genealogical material, receipts, programs, cookbooks, recipes, clippings,
speeches, writings, blueprints, photographs, and a scrapbook of the Hardens of Alamance
County, N.C. The bulk of the material documents the public career of Junius Hill Harden
(1859-1944), an industrialist, pertaining especially to Harden's efforts to locate
a rayon mill in Alamance County in the 1920s and to his involvement with the Congregational-Christian
church. There is some material pertaining to Junius Hill Harden's sons, Boyd Harden
(b. 1899) and Graham Harden (b. 1892), and to his father, Peter Ray Harden (fl. 1865),
including items relating to the latter's involvement in the Big Falls Manufacturing
Company in Alamance County in the late nineteenth century. Photographs include pictures
of early gas stations in Alamance County.

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants,
as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Harden Family Papers #4267, Southern Historical Collection,
The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Dr. and Mrs. Boyd Harden of Chapel Hill, N.C., in January and April
1981, and from Ann Harden Bradford of Durham, N.C., in January 1985.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or
confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy
laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. §
132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of
State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.).
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to
identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent
of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under
common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's
private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable
person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no
responsibility.

The following terms from
Library of Congress Subject
Headings
suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the
entire collection; the terms do
not usually represent
discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or
items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's
online catalog.

Junius Hill Harden was born 6 November 1859 to Peter Ray and Sarah Elizabeth Holt
Harden in Graham, Alamance County, N.C. He was educated at Graham Normal School and
Baltimore Business College. He married Lula Graham on 25 September 1891.

Harden was active in industry, education, transportation, public utilities, and real
estate in Alamance County. He was responsible for establishing the Piedmont Power
and Light Company, the first electric plant in the county; the Alamance Railway Company,
the county's first electric street car line; the first ice plant in the area; and
the first paved streets in Graham. The county's first telephone operated from his
textile mill. Harden helped found Elon College and the first hospital in Alamance
County. He reorganized the Holt Granite Mills and was instrumental in developing other
industries in the county through the Harden Industrial Cities Corporation. It was
through his efforts that the first rayon manufacturing plant came to Burlington. Harden
died on 11 June 1944 in Graham.

Harden's sons, Graham and Boyd, were both physicians in Alamance County. Graham was
born in Big Falls, N.C., in 1892. He was graduated from the University of North Carolina
in 1915 and received a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1919.
In 1921, he married Mary Bonner Williams. Boyd was born in Burlington, N.C., on 5
February 1899 and was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1921.

The bulk of these papers relate to the public career of Junius Harden. Material relating
to Junius Harden's father, Peter Ray Harden, is in Series 2. Material relating to
Junius Harden's son Boyd is in Series 3, and to his son Graham in Series 4. Series
5 contains maps of Alamance County, a cipher book, and two scrapbooks, one chiefly
containing advertising cards and the other relating to Masonic activities of one of
Boyd Harden's relatives. Pictures of Harden family members, of business leaders, and
of the University of North Carolina, circa 1921, are in Series 6.

Includes correspondence, blueprints, genealogical material, cookbooks, recipes, legal
material, clippings, and programs documenting the public career and interests of Junius
Harden. Most of the material relates to Harden's various business ventures. Of particular
interest is material documenting Harden's efforts to locate A. M. Johnson Mills, a
rayon manufacturing plant in Alamance County in the 1920s (folders 36-49). Also of
interest is genealogical material (folders 10-17) compiled by Harden, and material
relating to his involvement with Providence Memorial Christian Church in Graham (folder
35) and the Western Carolina Christian Conference (folders 50-53). Note that there
are a few blueprints relating to some of Junius Harden's projects filed as oversize
and rolled papers.

A cipher book, 1837-1841, of Westley L. Coble, whose relationship to the Hardens is
unknown; six rolled maps of Alamance County, 1890s-1920s, some with handwritten annotations
indicating ownership of land; a scrapbook, which may have been compiled by Boyd Harden,
chiefly containing advertisement cards from the turn of the century and some newspaper
clippings relating to the Harden family (loose material from this scrapbook has been
filed in Series 3); and a scrapbook, 1875-1923, of Albert D. Holmes of Melrose, Mass.,
documenting his Masonic activities. Albert D. Holmes appears to have been a relative
of Boyd Harden's wife, Ruth Elizabeth Holmes Harden, who, according to newspaper reports,
was the daughter of Albert Bourne Holmes of Pennsylvania.

Photographs of the Harden family, the Alamance Railway Company, the Providence Memorial
Christian Church, gas stations in and around Alamance County (with the number of gallons
of gas used per month noted on the backs of the pictures), and pictures of the University
of North Carolina from around 1921 when Boyd Harden was yearbook editor. There are
also publicity photographs of Senator Josiah William Bailey, Governor Clyde R. Hoey,
Representative Carl T. Durham, Lt. Governor A. H. Graham, Superintendent of Public
Instruction Clyde A. Erwin, and Director of Conservation and Development R. Bruce
Etheridge in connection with their being cited by the Industrial Development of Alamance
County organization.